Bank technology

San Diego-based Mitek, a firm that specializes in capturing mobile data for customer acquisition, has acquired Dutch identity verification company IDchecker.

Namu is trying to solve a problem facing all banks that vie for millennials' attention: how to make the mobile banking experience more appealing. Its app refreshes users' memories of transactions with images illustrating what they bought.

In a sign that the GSEs may once again be trying to compete with each other, Freddie Mac will no longer charge lenders to use its Loan Prospector automated underwriting system.

Independence Bancshares in Greenville, S.C., has raised nearly $8.5 million to help it expand its payments, technology and digital banking operations.

The explosive growth of largely unregulated online lenders has given them new opportunities to prey on unsuspecting borrowers.

Identity thieves stole information on 104,000 U.S. taxpayers from the IRS website and used the data to file fake tax returns that yielded as much as $50 million in refunds, agency Commissioner John Koskinen said.

New software aims to help prevent wireless network hijacking, or "commjacking." But there are also steps banks can take on their own to protect employees and customers from this seldom-discussed but ever-present threat.

In the wake of recent court rulings upholding homeowners associations' "super lien" status in foreclosures, mortgage vendors have flooded the market with products to help servicers and investors manage this long-standing threat.

California officials briefly raised hopes among digital currency proponents Friday by releasing a statement that they would drop plans to regulate digital currency businesses and instead defer to the legislature.

IMGCAP(1)]

Carolina Bank's growth, and a corresponding increase in remote workers, drove the CEO and IT department to seek technology tightening access to its systems without making it harder for employees to log in.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including the merits and drawbacks of Sen. Richard Shelby's regulatory reform legislation, whether bigger banks are inherently riskier and banks' evolving interest in blockchain technology.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and from our social media platforms.

Orchard Platform in New York has added two nonbank lenders to its marketplace lending service that matches institutional investors with loan originators.

Investor communications company Broadridge Financial Solutions has entered into an agreement with Thomson Reuters Lipper to acquire its Fiduciary Services and Competitive Intelligence unit.

Quants are still around, and their computer, math and statistical modeling skills are still sorely needed in banking. But they're more likely to apply their brainpower to stress tests than to pricing complex derivatives or exotic products.

It took three or so days to settle stock trades. What if that could happen instantly and be recorded on a blockchain for everyone to see?

James Varga, chief executive of miiCard, discusses how today's backward identity-management system requires people to share more information than is really necessary just to prove who they are.

For all the excitement about the blockchain's potential to shake up the financial industry, few people understand how it works. The really revolutionary part of the blockchain process is how miners manage to keep records of transactions accurate and tamper-proof.

Hackers may have breached a database with information on 1.1 million customers of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, a health insurer operating in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.